no means no

Seattle voters rejected both options on the ballot for replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct: no tunnel, no new elevated viaduct. I voted that way, so this is good news for me. Hopefully now our governor, mayor and speaker realizes that we need to look at other alternatives. We don't need a bigger viaduct. If we simply increase the capacity for cars, there will just be more cars on the road, wasting gas and polluting the air. We need to seriously look at improving our mass transit system, so that we can actually move the city forward.

One of the things I love about cities like New York or San Francisco or Taipei or almost any other major city I've been to with the exception of Los Angeles, is that I can get around on foot if I wanted to, conveniently. When I lived in the U District, it wasn't so bad, because everything was one bus ride away, and I could look up schedules for just one bus to reduce wait times. But now that I don't, it's a pain to go anywhere. I end up more often than not reconsidering plans to do anything, just because I don't feel like traveling an hour and a half each way, or waiting for an evening bus that only comes once an hour, and stops running at 1100pm. This shit needs to change, or I'd really be compelled to move to another city. Perhaps if we got rid of the viaduct and put the money they would have spent building a new monstrosity to beef up our public transportation, things would actually improve.